Saturday December 16

Hammer and sickle not Suqiu tools
James Wong Wing On

7:18pm, Sat: Prime Minister Dr Mahathir loves Cold War labels. Some get hurt, but others like me are paradoxically delighted because by wantonly throwing his outmoded labels around to all (except himself), he only stirs up in people the urge to reply and to rebut. 

In the process, some great concepts are debated and clarified. 

People who are not privileged enough to learn political science in universities should derive intellectual benefits therefrom. 

Communism is an example. What is communism? Are communists necessarily violent and illegal? For Cold War era warriors like Dr Mahathir, it may be so. 

However, going deeper intellectually and surveying the real communism that exists in other parts of the world, it can be concluded that Dr Mahathir is wrong. Damned wrong. 

By likening Suqiu to "communists", what he probably means is that it operates outside the system of contending political parties, and makes demands on the ruling ones, especially on the eve of general elections. 

Lobby groups 

Let us examine this premise of his "reasoning" : 

In a modern democratic system, political groups operating outside the party system are a normal part and parcel of the civil society, for the democratic system is larger than the party system. In other words, the party system is but a subset of the larger democratic system. 

Seen in this context, Suqiu is just like the trade unions, employers' associations, chambers of commerce, think-tanks, residents' association and others which make demands and appeals. In the Western democracies, these are called lobby groups. 

There is thus nothing "communistic" about Suqiu. And it is really absurd to liken a civil group whose leaders and supporters are almost all bourgeoisies or petit-bourgeoisies, to "communism". 

And Suqiu operates openly with a website, e-mail address as well as a physical premises. Its officers are public figures, with personal names duly registered with the National Registration Department. All of them possess personal birth certificates and identity cards. I am sure all of them pay taxes, too. 

Armed struggle 

On the other hand, we should not stereotype communism simplistically with "conspiracy" and "violence" and nothing else. To think or do otherwise is wrong and unfair. 

True enough, the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) most of the time carried arms after its inception in April 1930. Even so, it is an established fact in our modern history that between 1946 and June 1948, the party operated openly and semi-legally as the liberator of Malaya from Japanese occupation. 

Chin Peng (Ong Boon Hua), the secretary-general of CPM, for example was awarded the Order of British Empire (OBE) by the Queen, and other leaders of CPM were invited to the Allied Headquarters in London to celebrate the worldwide victory over fascism. 

If we are Malaysian and Asian enough in our historical perspective, the armed struggle of the CPM before Aug 31, 1957 can only be termed as a national liberation struggle, on par with the Independence wars of the United States of America and Indonesia. 

It was part of the struggle for Merdeka. 

Only British imperialists would consider and term the struggle of CPM between 1930 and August, 1957 as "terroristic" or "anti-government". The British Imperialists were right from their standpoint but for Malayans, Malaysians or other Asians to think likewise was and still is wrong. 

It was only after Aug 31, 1957, when our nation obtained independence, was the nature of CPM's struggle opened to critical debate. 

Bad guys

In Europe and other countries, including Japan, communist parties were and still are legal as constitutional parties. Many communists have been elected as members of parliaments and appointed ministers. Communists in these countries do not use bullets, but only rely on ballots. 

On the other hand, there were cases of democratically-elected communist and socialist governments being overthrown unconstitutionally and violently by right-wingers and "liberals". The classic case is the tragedy of the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973. 

And what about real communists in Cuba and the People's Republic of China, many of whom are Dr.Mahathir's friends? Are they bad guys too? 

Is Fidel Castro who awarded the Jose Marti Award to Dr Mahathir a "Suqiu" man? Is President Jiang Zemin an "Al Ma'unah"? Why not, if we were to follow Dr Mahathir's "reasoning". 

By the way, the latest Penguin English-language edition of Karl Marx's three-volume Capital and other political writings like the Communist Manifesto of 1848, are on sale in major bookshops around Kuala Lumpur. 

But imported books are always expensive for proletarians and lumpen proletarians.